Gnarled symbols of the Old West — eerily featured in the film as gunmen confront each other in dusty streets and townsfolk tremble behind curtains — rolled into several Salt Lake City suburbs over the weekend. It kept rolling until it covered the houses and streets.
Four days after numerous beachball-sized tumbleweeds were blown away by high winds, workers continued plowing, loading and transporting twisted, dried tumbleweed carcasses from neighborhoods in South Jordan, Utah, on Tuesday. I continued to do so.
“People woke up Saturday morning and it looked like a giant wall of tumbleweeds had been built,” South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey said. “In some areas, entire roads were completely blocked and houses were engulfed.”
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Tumbleweed’s takeover of southern Jordan on Saturday is not an isolated one, but neither is the invasive Russian Thistle’s nefarious plan to conquer the American West. Rather, the phenomenon is caused by a combination of seasonal wet and dry weather, plant mortality cycles, and strong wind gusts that propel the plants.
Russian thistle and other similar plants, which are native to southeastern Russia and western Siberia, are believed to have been brought to the United States by Russian immigrants as a contaminant of flaxseed, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Agriculture’s tumbleweed control program.
They begin as living green plants and grow by absorbing rainwater. When the soil dries out, the thistle dies and detaches from its roots. The ball moves around due to the wind.
City workers remove tumbleweeds in South Jordan, Utah, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Strong winds from a weekend storm left a Salt Lake City suburb flooded with tumbleweed. The gnarled Wild West icon continued to roll over the weekend, covering some homes and streets in suburban Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Brady McCombs)
“There were strong winds all night and into the early morning hours,” said South Jordan resident Chris Williams, who used a drone Saturday to take videos and photos of the tumbleweeds.
“They were congregating everywhere, under cars and trucks and trailers,” he said. “I’ve seen tumbleweeds in this area before, but this was unusual.”
Many people used shovels to remove tumbleweeds in front of their homes.
“I don’t think anyone was actually harmed by it,” said Williams, 65. “I think we could still get through it if we had to. Tumbleweeds aren’t that heavy.”
Brett Chumley owns Mama’s Diner in Pahrump, Nevada. The sight of tumbleweeds is a strange sight for visitors to the area. Chumley said this is a “normal occurrence” for longtime Pahrump residents.
“When it rains, weeds come up really fast,” he says. “Thanks to the rain over the last few years, we have more plants, but when it dries out, they separate.”
Like many weeds, thistles thrive in areas with disturbed soil, said Erika Fleischman, a professor at Oregon State University and director of the Oregon Climate Institute.
“It’s land that doesn’t have a lot of competition from livestock grazing, agriculture, bare land, native plants, so they can get a good foothold,” Fleischmann said.
Little research has been done on what climate change means for tumbleweeds, she added.
But Fleischmann said, “Climate change could lead to more dry and infertile soils where tumbleweeds can become established.” “When dry, it becomes highly flammable.”
In 2014, a small storm of tumbleweeds swept through the drought-stricken prairies of southern Colorado, blocking rural roads and irrigation canals and temporarily barricading homes and elementary schools. Parts of Victorville, California, were nearly buried by large clumps of dried weeds in 2018.
Ramsey said Saturday’s events were “an eye-opener,” although three consecutive high winds in 2021 also brought tumbleweeds to South Jordan.
“I think every tumbleweed in all of Salt Lake County has invaded South Jordan,” she says.
Crews were nearly finished cleaning up about 13 tumbleweeds that were taken to the landfill and piled up in trash cans Tuesday afternoon. No damage was reported.
Tumbleweeds are firmly ingrained in the culture of the American West, and how many people associate them with the Wild West. They also feature prominently in the song “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” recorded by the Sons of the Pioneers in the 1930s, said Brooks Hefner, an English professor at James Madison University.
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“That song gives one of the biggest metaphors of Tumbleweed being like a version of Drifter,” Hefner said. “The lyrics superimpose the singer on tumbleweeds rolling through empty spaces in the West. The visual dimension of tumbleweeds rolling through desert spaces is very poetic.”
